


Beauty Hold a Plea

by Stone_Princess



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-03-19
Updated: 2005-03-19
Packaged: 2017-11-01 12:00:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/356509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stone_Princess/pseuds/Stone_Princess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the Smallville Flash Fic Challenge. Velutlunas wanted: "Lex/Helen: post Exodus. Lex takes back what's his."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beauty Hold a Plea

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I owe the creators of Superman and Smallville a huge debt for giving me something wonderful to work with. I do not own or have any rights to the characters herewithin.
> 
> Thanks to Andariel and Bittermint for audiencing and hand-holding, and KormanFan for betaing, even when I know she had too much else to do.

* * *

Helen's head snapped up as Lex stepped through the doorway. The pallor of shock showed beneath her tropical tan. She was sitting at _his_ desk. In _his_ house.

"Lex?" She truly looked as if she'd seen a ghost. Lex had always thought of that saying as a tacky literary cliche, but surely he was a ghost to her. The only mistake in her plan had been not making sure he was dead. 

Lex didn't answer. He just stood there, watching her, waiting for her to reveal something. She only paused for a second before she ran to him. 

"Oh my God. You're alive! They searched for days while I was in the hospital. They told me they couldn't even find a trace of the plane." Lex pushed her back roughly as she clutched at him, sobbing, but not meeting his eyes. 

"You and my father must not have counted on the tenacity he built into me with all his lessons." Indeed, Lex had been surprised at his own resourcefulness in the situation. He'd called Lucas rather than Clark, since as best as he'd been able to figure, the plane was going down in the Mediterranean and Lucas was nearby on Cyprus. Clark had come to Lex's mind first, but that was ridiculous. What could Clark have done? 

It had only taken him a few weeks to heal. It took a few more months for Lucas's "friends" to discover the details of exactly how Lex had been betrayed. Lex would have bided his time for revenge, but once he'd found out about the treachery Helen was now perpetrating with Clark, he couldn't wait any longer. He'd returned to Smallville as quickly as possible. 

"Lex, how...? Oh, I don't care! I must be the luckiest woman alive!" Helen buried her face in his shoulder. 

"Did you think I couldn't swim? Did you think I didn't have enough connections to save myself?" Helen looked up, tears still flowing, but somehow she managed to still the false shaking of her body. 

Stepping away from her, Lex walked to a side table, finding his father's favorite cognac there. He poured a glass slowly, and sipped it, looking out the window. 

It was appalling that she had not only tried to take everything from him, but had come back here, to the scene of the crime, to live falsely, plied with sympathy from neighbors and friends. From Clark. His Clark. He felt a stab of fury at the thought of Clark's lips on Helen. There never had been a doubt in his mind, but he knew now that he would go through with his plan. 

He almost wished she'd had a little more follow through. Death would have saved him from having to go along with Helen's lies. But revenge was now his primary motivation. Lex would take back everything that was his, starting with the life that had ended when he took Helen as his wife. 

* * *

The sex was perfunctory on Lex's part. He couldn't stop thinking about how false she was, about the things she'd done with, and done to, Clark. About all she'd tried to take from him. 

Lex knew his anger was affecting his decision making. What had his father said? That he was ruled by his emotions? If it was emotions that had hatched this plan, Lex thought maybe he should listen to them more often. This felt right. He would take everything away from Helen. 

He'd drugged Helen over dinner. He'd had her and all of her paltry possessions shipped to her father's house in Metropolis. Legal proceedings against her would be underway before she even woke up. Knowing the terror she would feel when she realized what had happened helped turned Lex's blazing jealousy of what she had usurped to carefully controlled rage. 

Now he sat, watching the colored squares of light moving over his desk. A spider waiting patiently for its next prey. 

The mansion was so silent that Lex heard the footsteps in the hall. 

"Helen?" Clark asked as he entered. 

Lex was clearly much more of ghost to Clark than he'd been to Helen. There was no hesitancy in Clark's reaction, no guilt; just shock and relief. But Clark's visible innocence wasn't enough to calm Lex. 

"Helen's gone, Clark." Lex stood and crossed the room. "She won't be coming back." Lex stopped in front of Clark, trying to measure his reaction to the words, but Clark still only registered surprise. "You'll have to find a new playmate." 

Even if Lex hadn't seen the video and heard the tapes, he'd have known it was true by the flush that had always revealed Clark's lies in the past. Helen had taken the only thing he really wanted. Clark looked so stunning, even in distress. 

"Oh god, Lex, I..." Clark trailed off, but didn't look away. Tears sparkled in the corners of his eyes. He was so beautiful. 

"You what, Clark? Thought I was dead?" Lex wanted to seize him and erase the memory of Helen from Clark's body with his own hands. Or maybe he only wanted to hurt Clark, hurt Clark just like Clark had done to him. 

"I only wanted to be close to you, Lex, to your memory." The tears broke free, gliding down Clark's cheeks. 

All of a sudden, Lex felt real regret. Clark's face was so open, so revealing. Lex had only pursued Helen to punish Clark for not wanting him and now, it seemed that that hadn't been the case at all. 

"I'll go," Clark whispered. "I'm glad you're alive," he added as he turned around. 

Lex couldn't lose any more than he already had. 

Grabbing Clark's arm, he pulled him back. 

Clark, froze, his eyes searching Lex's. Lex pulled him close, willing him to understand, afraid to say the wrong thing. 

Clark's hands slid up his chest, clutched at him the way Helen's should have, the way someone who loved him would touch him. Lex's heart thudded, the rage and violation he'd felt when Clark confirmed the truth dissolving. 

Clark's face was wet as he pushed in closer to Lex, his words choked. "You're really here." As if only now, touching Lex, was this real to him. 

"Yes." Fear tugged at Lex's heart, but he couldn't stop now. He had to see if what he came back for was really there. "I came back for..." he paused, his mouth too dry to form the words. 

"For what, Lex?" 

Lex sagged against Clark as Clark's arms encircled him. 

"I came back for what I'd lost to Helen." He looked up, knowing this might be too much, challenging Clark to tell him otherwise. 

"It was always about you, Lex," Clark said as his mouth closed on Lex's and Lex fell again, this time without fear. 

~finis~ 

_Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,_ _But sad mortality o'ersways their power,_ _How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,_ _Whose action is no stronger than a flower?_ \- Sonnet LXV, Wm. Shakespeare. 


End file.
